Second Samuel, chapter 2, verse
1. And it came to pass after this
that David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up into any
of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said unto him, Go
up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said unto Hebron. Now, I have a word this morning,
particularly from this verse, for our young people, for our
teenagers, high school, college age people. I know that you don't
have a class of your own, but you should know I think about
you every week as I study and prepare these lessons that the
Lord will give me something for you. I don't want to be talking
above your head or anything like that. I pray for you every week
as I prepare these lessons. I've known you since you were
babies and you mean a great deal to me. So I hope you'll listen
carefully to what I have to say to you this morning. And the
rest of us listen in, because in the will of the Lord, we'll
make this applicable to even the oldest believer here in a
few minutes. Now, remember the scene here in 2 Samuel 2. Some
years ago, Samuel had anointed David to be king of Israel. But
Saul was already king, and Saul did not just willingly give up
the throne to David. David spent some time before
it came time where he could sit on the throne as king, but Samuel
had anointed him too. And now Saul and Jonathan have
been killed. And it seems obvious to us that
David is just going to rise straight to the throne of Israel, right?
I mean, it just seems obvious. He's just going to go up there
and sit on the throne because all obstacles have been removed.
It seems obvious to us. But that's not what David does.
He inquires of the Lord as to what he should do at this time.
What should I do? And that's what I hope the Lord
will impress upon your hearts. To inquire of the Lord. Ask of
the Lord. You know, you don't have to be
a certain age to be led of the Lord. You don't have to be a
certain age to inquire of the Lord. David, here in chapter
2, he's going to be anointed king of Judah. is 22 years old. That means he was just a teenager
when he killed Goliath. Samuel was just a boy, 12 years
old maybe, and the Lord spoke to him. You don't have to be
a certain age to seek the Lord. Our Lord himself said, suffer
the little children to come unto me. You don't have to be a certain
age to inquire of the Lord. And there's four things I want
to give you here, you young people. about seeking the Lord, inquiring
of the Lord. First of all, seek the Lord. Inquire of the Lord. Make it
your habit to seek the Lord, to inquire of Him in everything
you do. And first and foremost, seek
the Lord for mercy. Ask God for mercy. Look at Matthew
chapter 6. First and foremost, in everything
that you seek the Lord, in everything that you would inquire of the
Lord about, first and foremost, ask God for mercy. Ask God to
reveal Himself to you. Ask Him. Our Lord said you have
not because you ask not. Then ask Him for mercy. It just
seems to make sense, doesn't it? In Matthew chapter 6, verse
33. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. And all these things should be
added unto you. Seek ye first mercy. Seek the Lord. Ask him. You don't have to be a certain
age for God to be merciful to you. We're born sinners, right? We're born in need of mercy.
So ask the Lord for mercy. Second, make it your habit to
inquire of the Lord in everything you do. Ask him the way that
you should go. Ask him how you should go. Inquire
of the Lord. Ask the Lord to show you which
direction you should go in every decision that you have to make.
Now, all of you are getting ready to make a lot of decisions in
your life. Some of you are deciding where
to go to college. Ask the Lord, ask him where you
should go, ask him to reveal to him, to you, his will, where
you should go to college. Really, you should do that. Soon,
eventually, you're going to want to be married. My advice to you
is right now, begin to ask the Lord to send you your husband
or wife when it's time. Ask Him. I'm a big fan of marriage. I mean, I have loved being married. Being married can be such a blessing
if the Lord sends you the right husband or right wife. Well,
ask Him. Begin asking Him now. Ask the
Lord. Inquire of the Lord. How you
should conduct yourself through this life, through the world
that you've got to go through. Now listen to me. I know it's
hard. Believe me, I know. You all are
growing up and coming of age in what I believe really is the
most difficult time in human history to be your age. It's
difficult. I do not pretend for a minute
to tell you and believe this is the best time of your life.
It's going to get better. It will get better as you get
older. But this is a hard time. So ask the Lord how to show you
how you should conduct yourself as you go through this world.
It's difficult. Ask, inquire of the Lord. Third,
you seek the Lord, inquire of the Lord. Because seeking his
way, knowing his will will save you from a lot of heartache.
It will save you from so much trouble. Look back at 1 Samuel
27. There was a time, now here in
2 Samuel 2, David inquires of the Lord. Back in 1 Samuel 27,
that's not what he did. He inquired of his own heart.
And look where it led him. 1 Samuel 27. And David said in
his heart, you notice he's not seeking the Lord or seeking the
Lord's heart. He said in his heart, I shall
now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There's nothing better
for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines. And Saul saw despair of me to
seek me anymore in any coast of Israel. And that's how I'm
going to escape, by his hand, by going to the land of the Philistines.
That caused David so much heartache, so much grief. When he communed
with his own heart, he ended up going into the land of the
Hebrews, away from God, away from the people of God. But when
David inquired of the Lord, Should I go up and where should I go?
You know where he went? The Lord sent him to Hebron. And we'll see this in a minute.
Hebron means communion. The Lord sent him to a place
of communion with God. You know who lived in Hebron?
That's where the priests lived. The priests who offered the sacrifice.
He went to that city where the priests presided over the worship
of God through the blood of the sacrifice. And Hebron was one
of the cities of refuge. place of safety. Sounds like
a good place to be, doesn't it? The Lord sent David to a very
different place than David went when he commuted with his own
heart. If you inquire of the Lord and seek His will, it will
save you from a lot of grief. And fourth, now seek the Lord. Inquire of the Lord. And then
wait on the Lord to answer. Just wait on Him. Now He will
make His way plain in His time. Many times it will not be our
time, but it will be his time. So wait on him to answer. He'll
make his way plain. And the Lord uses means to make
his way known. First, he uses his word. If we'll find out what God's
word says, most all the time, we'll know the way we should
go and we'll know how we should go. The problem is not that we
don't understand God's word. is that it crosses our way, and
we frequently don't want to do it. If we'll understand, we'll
learn what God's Word says, and that's why these classes and
our worship service and going through the Word verse by verse
is so important. This is the way we find out what
God's Word says. And if we find out what His Word
says, we'll know the way we should go. And I'll tell you another
means the Lord could use to make His way known to you. It's your
parents. Now, I know most teenagers do
not think that their parents know very much, but you would
be amazed what your parents know about what you're going through.
You'd be absolutely, utterly amazed because they've been there.
There's a reason the Lord gave you parents. And if you'll ask
them and consult with them, you can learn a lot if you just ask
them. Another means the Lord could
use is older believers. Just look around you. You see
people who've been under the sound of the gospel a long time.
And if you see one of them that just strikes you, that person's
got a little bit of wisdom, maybe, talk to them. Ask them. They'd
be delighted. I promise you, you will not be
annoying people. They'll be delighted that you,
you know, even though they're around, you know, to ask them
something. If you want to know how to do something, You'd be
very wise to find someone who's already done it, and already
done it successfully, and ask them how to do it. Wouldn't that
be wise? Jan and I were going down the
road yesterday, and she saw there at South Point that Grandview
Outlet, they have these pieces of fence and so forth. She'd
love to have this big privacy fence put up around our backyard.
If we ever break down and do that, you know what I'm going
to do? I'm going to ask HB. about that because that man has
built a fence or two and I'm going to ask him about how to
do it because he's done it and done it successfully. You'd be
wise if you want to know how to do something in your life
to ask someone who's already done it. That could be the way
the Lord shows you his will, his way. And don't just seek
the Lord when you think you don't know what to do. Seek the Lord
at all times about everything. It seems obvious David is supposed
to go back to Judah and reign. It seems obvious to us, doesn't
it? But before he did that, he inquired of the Lord. That's
wise. And don't just seek the Lord
in times of trouble and trial. Everybody in this world finds
a reason to pray when they're in time of trouble and trial.
We'd be wise to seek the Lord in times of blessing and success,
too. This is a bright, successful
day for David. The king's finally off the throne.
He's finally going to reign. What a successful, bright day.
But before David does anything, he inquired of the Lord. Now,
that's sound advice. I hope you'll take that to heart
and pray that the Lord will give you wisdom to do that. Now, believers
are children of God. Isn't that what Scripture calls
us? Children of God. Scripture says there are babes
in Christ, there are young men in Christ, there's just like
our teenagers, there's teenagers, young men in Christ. And there's
old men, old women, people who are mature, grown in grace. And
we should grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We should grow in spiritual maturity, shouldn't we? But if you're honest,
most usually, the best we feel like is an adolescent. Just,
oh, just, we're just, I'm having, The more growth we have in spiritual
growth, the more we'll realize how completely dependent upon
our Heavenly Father we are. Wouldn't it be wise for the children
of God to follow the advice we give our children? That's the
advice I gave our children. Ask your parents. Well, shouldn't
a child of God be seeking our Heavenly Father, seeking his
will, seeking his direction, seeking his way? Before we make
any move, we ought to seek the way and the will of our Heavenly
Father. It'll save us from a lot of heartache.
It really would. And David inquired of the Lord
before he went back to Judah, he said, should I go to Judah?
Should I even go there in the first place? And Lord told David,
yes, go, go to Judah. And David said, well, what city
should I go to? You notice the Lord reveals his
will in parts, just a part at a time. He never reveals the
whole path all at once. He reveals it just a little bit
at a time. Abram, get thee out of thy country,
get yourself out of your father's house and go to a land that I'll
show you later. He didn't tell Abraham where
he was going. He said, get out of your father's house, get on
the road, and later on, I'll show you where you're going.
When he called his disciples, he said, follow me. The disciples
didn't ask him, Lord, where are we going? He wouldn't have told
them. He said, follow me. They found
out later on where they're going. He reveals his will in pieces,
a little bit at a time. You walk in the light that God
gives you. And he'll give you more life.
He'll just keep giving you more life at each step you take. And
the Lord told David to go to Hebron. And like I told you a
minute ago, that word Hebron means communion. And it was a
city of the priests. That's where the priests lived.
That's where they offered the sacrifices and the worship of
God. And Hebron was one of the cities of refuge. Well, that's
a mighty good place for David to begin his reign, wasn't it?
in communion with God, in a city of refuge, a place of safety,
in a place where the priests offer the sacrifice, where the
people worship God through the blood of the sacrifice that God
had appointed. And that is such a clear picture
of Christ. Now, I can't tell you where it
is the Lord would have you go. I can't tell you what the Lord
would have you do when you get there. I don't know. But I know
this. There's three things I know.
I know this, it's not the Lord's will for you to go somewhere
where you cannot have communion with him. I promise you that's
not the Lord's will. Communion with God can only be
done through his son. Well, it's not the Lord's will
for you to go somewhere his son's not preached. I promise you that.
Second, it's not the Lord's will for you to go somewhere where
Christ the high priest is not preached. where the sacrifice
of Christ is not first and foremost in the message. It's not the
Lord's will for you to go there, because God can only be worshipped
through His Son, through the blood of His Son. Third, it's
not the Lord's will for you to go somewhere that's not a city
of refuge. And that city of refuge is Christ.
We flee to Him for safety. Even though we're guilty, we
flee to Him for safety. Well, don't go anywhere. where
safety in Christ alone is not preached. Just don't go there,
because I can promise you it's not the Lord's will for you to
go there. David sought the Lord and he sent him to Hebron. But
now if you look in verse 2, he didn't go alone. In verse 2,
David went up thither and his two wives also, the Hinoam, the
Jezreelitus, and Abigail, Nabal's wife, the Carmelite. David did
not go to Hebron alone. Those wives that he loved went
with him. Now these women came to David
and they married David when he was an outcast. Now they're going
to be married to him. They're going to live with him
when everybody loves him too. These women came and lived with
David when he was living in caves, when he was hiding in an outcast
and living in caves. Now they're going to go to Hebron
and they're going to live with him when he lives in the castle
too. And the same thing's true of the bride of Christ. Now,
you come to Christ. I tell you, you come right where
you sit. You come to Christ. Now, that's
not a popular move to the flesh. And it's not popular to the flesh.
I'm not talking about other people's flesh. I'm talking about our
flesh. Coming to Christ is not popular to this flesh. Because
if you come to Christ in truth and sincerity, you have to confess. that you are a sinner, a complete
sinner, completely undone by your sin. And you've got to confess
that you're in need of a savior because you cannot help yourself.
That's not popular to the flesh. If you're going to come to Christ,
you've got to confess you have no goodness and no righteousness
of your own. The only righteousness you can
ever possibly have is the righteousness that he gives you. And that's
not popular to the flesh. If you come to Christ, you've
got to admit You have no ability whatsoever, except the ability
that he gives you. And that's not popular to the
flesh, but it's for your eternal good. Look at Romans chapter
8. There are two scriptures here. It's not popular to the flesh,
but it's for your eternal good. Let's look at verse 16. For the
Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Isn't
that what happened to David's wife? They suffered with him
for a while. Now they're glorified together with him. Look at 2
Timothy 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. Verse 11, it is a faithful saying,
for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If
we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he
also will deny us. If you suffer with him, you're
going to reign with him. That's what happened to David's
wives. And you know the same thing, if you look back in our
text, happened to all David's men. It wasn't just his two wives,
it was all of his men. Look in verse 3. And his men
that were with him did David bring up, every man with his
household, and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron." Now, you
remember when these men came to David, these men that he brought
up with him? Who were these men that first
came to David? Look back in 1 Samuel 22. In 1 Samuel 22, verse 1,
David therefore departed thence and escaped to the cave of Dolom.
And when his brethren and all his father's house heard it,
they went down thither to him. And everyone that was in distress,
and everyone that was in death, and everyone that was discontented
gathered themselves unto him, and he became a captain over
them. And there were with him about 400 men. That was a mighty
sorry lot that came to David, wasn't it? Oh, my goodness, they're
sorry. They're men who are in distress. They're discontented.
They're in death. But those are the very men that
David took with him to Heathland to reign with him. Now, look
at 1 Chronicles 12. This is not recorded. either
of the books of Samuel, but in 1 Chronicles 12, these men who
were discontented, they were in debt, they were, oh, they
were sorry a lot. They came to David. But eventually, while
David is there in Ziklag, other men start coming to David. Look
at verse 1. Now these are they that came to David to Ziklag.
This is where, while he was still in Ziklag before he went back
to Judah. While he kept himself close because of Saul, the son
of Kish. Now these men that came to him, they were among the mighty
men, helpers of war. They were armed with bows. They
could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones
and shooting arrows out of the bow. They were ambidextrous,
mighty in both hands. Even of Saul's brethren, of Benjamin. Look down at verse 8. And of
the Gadites there separated themselves unto David into the whole to
the wilderness, men of might. Men of war, fit for the battle.
These men were not discontented. They were not in debt. These
were mighty men of war. They were fit for the battle.
They could handle the shield and the buckler, whose faces
were like the faces of lions. They were swift as the rose upon
the mountains. These men came to David, too.
But you want to hear a blessing? These men. These mighty men of
war. These men who could fight with
both hands. They did not replace those men. who were in distress,
who were in debt, who were discontented. They were replaced by these mighty,
good-looking, strong, talented men. Those men who first came
to David reigned with David in positions of leadership. These
are the men that he put in positions of leadership in his kingdom.
And the same thing is true of every person who ever comes to
Christ. Look at Matthew chapter 19. In
Matthew 19 verse 28. And Jesus said unto them, Verily
I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regeneration
of the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory. Ye also
shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands,
for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit
everlasting life. But many that are first shall
be last. And the last shall be first. No believer will ever
be replaced by a more talented, better looking person who comes
along later. Because in Christ, everyone's
the same. In Christ, everyone wears the
beauty of Christ. You can't get more beautiful
than that. In Christ, everyone wears the righteousness of Christ.
And we're all in the body as it pleases Him. And you'll notice
these men, they didn't go up to Hebron. David brought them
there. He brought them to Hebron. He
brought them to that place of communion with God. David brought
them to the city of the priests. David brought them to that city
of refuge. And if anyone is in Christ, we
are in Christ. We know Him. We have spiritual,
eternal life. because Christ brought us up
thither. We didn't go there on our own.
He brought us. And if anyone ever finds themselves
in glory, awakened in the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ reigning
with him, it will only be because the Lord Jesus Christ brought
us thither from here to there to be with him. We didn't go
on our own. He brought us there. Salvation
is of the Lord. From beginning to ending and
every step in between, he brought us death. Salvation is of the
Lord. Now, verse 4 in our text, this
will be our last verse we look at. And the men of Judah came
and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.
And they told David, saying that the men of Jabesh Gilead were
they that buried Saul. We'll deal with those men of
Jabesh Gilead next week. But the men of Judah, they came
and anointed David king over Judah. Now, David is king of
Israel. He's king of all Israel. The
Lord's made that obvious to anybody who's watching. David is king
of Israel. The Lord sent Samuel to anoint
David to be king over Israel, not just Judah, but over all
Israel. And that's no secret. At this point, that's no secret.
Samuel had anointed David to be king. The Lord had removed
his presence from Saul. He removed his blessing from
Saul and ultimately took Saul's life and removed Saul from the
throne because God had appointed David to be king of Israel. Now David's king. There's no
denying he's God's king. But all Israel does not come
running out to anoint David to be their king, do they? All Israel
wasn't celebrating the fact David was king over them. All Israel
wasn't bowing the knee to David as their king. But Judah did. The tribe of Judah did. Judah
bowed the knee to David as their king. Now Christ is king. God's Word plainly teaches that. I mean, to anybody who's watching,
who's paying any attention whatsoever, Christ is king. He's king of
kings and Lord of lords, absolute sovereign over all of his creation. And it looks to us, you know,
as we sit here, it looks to us like very few are bowing the
knee to King Christ, doesn't it? Seems like very few. But
Judah does. God's elect do. It seems to us
like very few rejoice in the fact that Christ is King. Very few. But Judah does. God's elect do. And you know
this is the will of God. Look at Hebrews chapter 2. This
is the will of God. This isn't, you know, this isn't,
it's not some accident that looks like very few are bowing to the
knee to Christ. This is God's will. All those whom he has appointed
are bowing to the knee to Christ. I can promise you that. In Hebrews
2 verse 8, thou hast put all things in subjection under his
feet. All things. For in that he put
all in subjection under him. He left nothing. that is not
put under him. Now you can't read that verse
and not understand Christ is King of all. But now, we see
not yet all things put under him. We don't see it yet, do
we? But one day we will. It's not
always going to be like this. Philippians 2 tells us there's
coming a day that in the name of Jesus, every knee will bow
and every tongue will confess he Lord. He's king. Right now, Judah does. But there's
coming a day everyone will. My daughter, Savannah, is in
an honors class, and she was going to try to change her schedule
and get into a different one that would fit her schedule better.
But she saw in the syllabus that their text for the first half
of the semester is not a book she went and bought down there
at Kennedy's bookstore. It's Romans and Galatians. And
she thought, well, this could be interesting. And they've been
discussing that, you know, in the past few weeks. And in the
next week or two, they're going to discuss man's free will. And
she called me this week. She said, that's going to turn
ugly. That's just going to turn ugly.
And she had made a comment earlier in the class. And the professor
said, wow, somebody's not just reading Romans. They've been
reading Ephesians, too. I mean, over the course of her
life, I know she has, but Romans and Ephesians, they say the same
thing. I just didn't realize that. But she made this comment
to me this week when we were talking. She said, how can anyone
read the Bible and think man has a free will? How can you
just read Romans? Don't even read the rest of the
Bible. How can anyone read this scripture that we're discussing
and think man has a free will? How can anyone read the book
of Romans and not understand God's will shall be done. How can we not understand that? I told her they don't understand
that because they choose to ignore God's Word, what it plainly says,
because no one in this life will bow the knee to Christ as King
unless God has mercy on their souls. I start out this lesson
telling you, I pray for you. I pray God give us mercy to bow
to Christ now, and pray he'd give us the wisdom to inquire
of him the rest of our journey here on this earth. It'll go
well for us if he would. All right. Well, I hope the Lord
will bless that too.